Like the film's title "Scrapper," its main character, 12-year-old Georgie, is a fighter.
A precocious pre-teen, Georgie (played by Lola Campbell) lives alone in a London flat following her mother's death. She dupes social services check-in calls by telling the case managers she's living with her uncle – Winston Churchill – an obviously fictitious guardian she’s cleverly created with voice recordings made by a local shopkeeper.
Georgie occasionally attends school and spends most of her free time stealing bikes with her best friend Ali (played by Alin Uzun) to make a living.
As the film opens, we learn more about Georgie from a creative montage of narratives from the neighborhood gang of mean girls, Georgie's teacher and case workers, an odd trio of brothers on yellow bikes, and Zeph, Georgie's stolen bike seller.
Georgie processes her grief by obsessively cleaning her modest house and escaping to a make-believe world she's created in the form of a sculpture of found objects in her mother's bedroom.
Georgie is a young girl wise and resourceful beyond her years, who is determined to raise herself and live independently. Until the day Jason, her absentee father, hops the backyard fence and re-enters her life.
Harris Dickinson plays Jason, an expat living large in Ibiza who has traveled back to London to meet Georgie after getting word that her mom has passed away. Georgie is skeptical of Jason and resistant to his attempts to become her friend and parent.
What unfolds next is a series of adventures and adversities that deepen the bond between Georgie and Jason as they both navigate an unfamiliar father/daughter dynamic.
Writer/director Charlotte Regan makes her feature film debut with "Scrapper," which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. The film features exceptional performances by Campbell and Dickinson, along with an engaging cast of supporting characters.
Running 1 hour and 24 minutes, "Scrapper" is not rated but is appropriate for viewers aged 12 and up. Now playing in theaters and coming to Park City Film October 13-15, "Scrapper" is a heartwarming film worth watching.
